TY - JOUR
T1 - Persistent pityriasis rosea
T2 - An unusual form of pityriasis rosea with persistent active HHV-6 and HHV-7 infection
AU - Drago, Francesco
AU - Broccolo, Francesco
AU - Ciccarese, Giulia
AU - Rebora, Alfredo
AU - Parodi, Aurora
PY - 2015/2/17
Y1 - 2015/2/17
N2 - Pityriasis rosea (PR) is an acute, self-limiting exanthematous disease, associated with the reactivation of the human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) and/or human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7) that usually lasts 6-8 weeks. We studied, from a clinical and virological point of view, 12 patients in whom the features of PR lasted longer than 12 weeks, defining this form of the disease as persistent PR (PPR). As in typical PR, in most of the PPR patients the disease begins with a herald patch, but compared to typical PR, systemic symptoms and oral lesions are more common. Moreover, in PPR we found a persistent reactivation of HHV-6 and/or HHV-7 with higher viral loads than in typical PR, accounting for the unusual persistence of the illness, the more frequent and severer systemic symptoms and the oral lesions. In conclusion, we describe an unusual persistent form of PR, whose prevalence has probably been underestimated so far and which should be added to the other variants of PR.
AB - Pityriasis rosea (PR) is an acute, self-limiting exanthematous disease, associated with the reactivation of the human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) and/or human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7) that usually lasts 6-8 weeks. We studied, from a clinical and virological point of view, 12 patients in whom the features of PR lasted longer than 12 weeks, defining this form of the disease as persistent PR (PPR). As in typical PR, in most of the PPR patients the disease begins with a herald patch, but compared to typical PR, systemic symptoms and oral lesions are more common. Moreover, in PPR we found a persistent reactivation of HHV-6 and/or HHV-7 with higher viral loads than in typical PR, accounting for the unusual persistence of the illness, the more frequent and severer systemic symptoms and the oral lesions. In conclusion, we describe an unusual persistent form of PR, whose prevalence has probably been underestimated so far and which should be added to the other variants of PR.
KW - Human herpesvirus 6
KW - Human herpesvirus 7
KW - Persistent pityriasis rosea
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U2 - 10.1159/000368352
DO - 10.1159/000368352
M3 - Article
C2 - 25612842
AN - SCOPUS:84922977393
VL - 230
SP - 23
EP - 26
JO - Dermatology
JF - Dermatology
SN - 1018-8665
IS - 1
ER -